Amsterdam
D I R E C T I O N S
written and researched by
Martin Dunford and Phil Lee
Rough Guides New Media
New York · London · Delhi
www.roughguides.com
Publishing Information
This 1st edition published August 2004 by Rough Guides Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL.
345 Hudson St, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10014, USA.
Distributed by the Penguin Group
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL
Penguin Group (USA), 375 Hudson Street, NY 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Australia), 487 Maroondah Highway, PO Box 257, Ringwood, Victoria 3134, Australia
Penguin Group (Canada), 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 1E4
Penguin Group (NZ), 182–190 Wairau Road, Auckland 10, New Zealand
The print version of this eBook was Typeset in Bembo and Helvetica to an original design by Henry Iles.
© Rough Guides, 2004
No part of this eBook may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher except for the quotation of brief passages in reviews.
A catalogue record for print version of this eBook is available from the British Library
ISBN 1-84353-306-5
The publishers and authors have done their best to ensure the accuracy and currency of all the information in Amsterdam DIRECTIONS, however, they can accept no responsibility for any loss, injury, or inconvenience sustained by any traveller as a result of information or advice contained in the guide.
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Contents
Introduction
Ideas
The big six sights
Brown Cafés
Restaurants
Art galleries
Coffeeshops
Hostellers’ Amsterdam
Green Amsterdam
Clubbers’ Amsterdam
Kids’ Amsterdam
Gay Amsterdam
Festivals
Canalside Amsterdam
Markets
Special shopping
Rembrandt
Designer bars
Traditional architecture
Modern architecture
Churches
What to eat
Clothes
Tearooms
Hotels
Museums
Musical Amsterdam
Getting around
Places
The Old Centre
The Grachtengordel
The western canals and the Jordaan
The Old Jewish Quarter and Eastern Docks
The Museum Quarter and the Vondelpark
The Outer Districts
Day-trips from Amsterdam
Accommodation
Hotels
Hostels
Essentials
Arrival
Red tape and visas
City transport
Information and maps
Banks and exchange
Communications
Opening hours
Public holidays
Festivals and events
Entertainment and nightlife
Drugs
Directory
Language
Small Print
A Rough Guide to Rough Guides
Rough Guide Credits
Help us update
The authors
Acknowledgements
Introduction
This is as easy and engaging a capital city as you’ll find – a compact, immediately likeable place, small enough to explore easily in a weekend, and with an intriguing combination of the parochial and the international. Just about everyone speaks good-to-fluent English, and more often than not more than a smattering of French and German as well.
Amsterdam is a thoughtful city too, with a long-standing liberal tradition that has given it a distinctive character, beginning with the obvious – the legalised prostitution and dope-smoking coffeeshops – through to the more subtle, encapsulated by Amsterdammers themselves in the Dutch word gezellig, which roughly corresponds to a combination of "cosy", "lived-in" and "warmly convivial". Nowhere is this more applicable than in the city’s unparalleled selection of gezellig drinking establishments, whether you choose a traditional brown café or one of the newer, designer places. In addition, the city boasts dozens of great restaurants, with its Indonesian cuisine second-to-none, and is at the forefront of contemporary European film, dance, drama and music. Amsterdam has several top-rank jazz venues – the Dutch have long had a soft spot for jazz – and the Concertgebouw concert hall is home to one of the world’s leading orchestras. By comparison, the club scene is restrained by the standard of other big cities, although gay men are well catered for in the many gay bars and clubs, partly justifying Amsterdam’s claim to be the "Gay Capital of Europe".
* * *
When to visit
Amsterdam enjoys a fairly standard temperate climate, with warm, if characteristically mild summers and moderately cold and wet winters. The climate is certainly not severe enough to make very much difference to the city’s routines, which makes Amsterdam an ideal all-year destination. That said, high summer – roughly late June to August – sees the city’s parks packed to the gunnels and parts of the centre almost overwhelmed by tourists, whereas spring and autumn are not too crowded and can be especially beautiful, with mist hanging over the canals and low sunlight beaming through the cloud cover. Indeed, Amsterdam has more than its fair share of cloudy days at any time of the year, but even in January and February, when things can be at their gloomiest, there are compensations – wet cobbles glistening under the street lights and the canals rippled by falling raindrops. In the summer, from around June to August, mosquitoes can be bothersome. At any time of the year, but particularly in summer, try to book your accommodation well ahead of time.
* * *
The layout of the city is determined by a web of canals radiating out from an historical core to loop right round the centre in a "Girdle of Canals", the Grachtengordel. This planned, seventeenth-century extension to the medieval town makes for a uniquely elegant urban environment, with tall gabled houses reflected in black-green waters. This is where the city is at its most beguiling, a world away from the traffic and noise of many another European city centre, and it has made Amsterdam one of the continent’s most popular short-haul destinations. These charms are supplemented by a string of first-rate attractions, most notably the Anne Frankhuis, where the young Jewish diarist hid away during the German occupation of World War II, the Rijksmuseum, with its wonderful collection of Dutch paintings, including several of Rembrandt’s finest works, and the peerless Vincent Van Gogh Museum, with the world’s largest collection of the artist’s work.
Amsterdam at a glance
Red-Light District
Once upon a time this area was on the edge of the city. Now it’s perhaps Amsterdam’s most notorious neighbourhood, thronged with tourists and gangs of men here to ogle scantily clad prostitutes sitting in windows. It has to be seen, but it’s worth bearing in mind that this is a business – rather than a tourist – district, with a solid bedrock of sleaze beneath the veneer of good, clean fun.
De Pijp
The increasingly gentrified heart of working-class Amsterdam is worth visiting for its vibrant daily market and growing number of cool bars and eateries.
Grachtengordel
The ultimate in thoughtful city planning, the Grachtengordel – basically the ring of canals that was dug around the medieval centre in the seventeenth century – tripled the city in size, and made Amsterdam what it is today. When anyone thinks of the city, it
is these elegant waterways, criss-crossed by bridges, and flanked by tall quirkily gabled houses, that they have in mind.
Old Jewish Quarter
Amsterdam’s Jewish Quarter is not what it was – most of its inhabitants were deported during the Nazi occupation, and it’s been unsympathetically redeveloped since then. But it holds a few fascinating corners of Jewish and wartime history as well as some key one-off attractions like the Rembrandthuis and the city’s zoo.
Outside Amsterdam
Don’t forget that Holland is a small country and that there are plenty of compelling attractions very close at hand – not least the small town of Haarlem, with the great Frans Hals Museum, and the stunning Keukenhof Gardens, among others.
Museum Quarter
Unsurprisingly, this area, just south of the city centre proper, is home to the cream of Amsterdam’s museums. It is also one of the city’s plusher neighbourhoods, with leafy streets and apartment blocks and upscale shops and restaurants. There are quite a few moderately priced hotels here too.
Western Canals and the Jordaan
In many ways this is the city centre's most appealing and restful area, with some of the most graceful stretches of the main canals, the more ramshackle small waterways of the Jordaan, and the tall warehouses of the former harbour area. All without pesky trams and traffic.
Ideas
The big six sights
Brown Cafés
Restaurants
Art galleries
Coffeeshops
Hostellers’ Amsterdam
Green Amsterdam
Clubbers’ Amsterdam
Kids’ Amsterdam
Gay Amsterdam
Festivals
Canalside Amsterdam
Markets
Special shopping
Rembrandt
Designer bars
Traditional architecture
Modern architecture
Churches
What to eat
Clothes
Tearooms
Hotels
Museums
Musical Amsterdam
Getting around
The big six sights
Amsterdam isn’t a city of major sights; its pleasures lie in wandering the streets and taking in things aimlessly rather than targeting specific attractions. However there are a number of things you really shouldn’t leave town without seeing, ranging from the high cultural hit of the Van Gogh Museum to the full-on sleaze of the Red Light District.
Anne Frankhuis
The secret annexe in which the famous teenage diarist hid with her family during the Nazi occupation is perhaps the city’s most popular – and most moving – tourist attraction.
See THE GRACHTENGORDEL
Oude Kerk
The city centre’s oldest church, now oddly surrounded by brothels.
See THE OLD CENTRE
Royal Palace
The supreme architectural example of the Dutch empire at the height of its powers.
See THE OLD CENTRE
Rijksmuseum
This is closed for a major restoration. But it’s the city’s greatest museum by far, featuring everything from paintings to furniture and applied arts. You can see the best of its paintings in a temporary home in the building’s Philips Wing, as well as at the Nieuwe Kerk, Schiphol Airport and other places around town.
See THE MUSEUM QUARTER AND THE VONDELPARK
Red-Light District
Too steeped in the art of titillation to be truly shocking these days, but Amsterdam’s red-light district is still the real thing – and a big attraction in its own right.
See THE OLD CENTRE
Van Gogh Museum
With the world’s most comprehensive collection of the artist’s work, this museum is simply unmissable.
See THE MUSEUM QUARTER AND THE VONDELPARK
Brown cafés
Drinking your way around Amsterdam isn’t such a bad way of passing the time, and the traditional Amsterdam bar – or brown café – is an excellent place to do just that. Named for the colour of their walls, stained by years of tobacco smoke, the city’s brown cafés are cosy places to linger over a coffee, nurse a beer and read the paper. There’s one on every corner, they’re open all day, usually until late at night, and the atmosphere is relaxed and welcoming, whether you’re a local or a tourist.
Hoppe
One of Amsterdam’s longest established city-centre watering-holes.
See THE OLD CENTRE
De Reiger
Typical, buzzy, locals’ bar in the Jordaan.
See THE WESTERN CANALS AND THE JORDAAN
Hegeraad
Perfectly preserved cosy brown café.
See THE GRACHTENGORDEL
Wynand Fockink
The city’s best example of an old-fashioned proeflokaal or "tasting-house".
See THE OLD CENTRE
Restaurants
Amsterdam is definitely not a gourmet city. However there have always been great places to eat here, and the quality and number of establishments has risen over recent years. Whether it’s hearty Dutch food, great fish or Indonesian specialities, you can eat superbly well nowadays if you know where to go.
Albatros
Something of an institution, and one of the city’s best fish restaurants.
See THE WESTERN CANALS AND THE JORDAAN
Claes Claesz
A good place to sample proper Dutch food at moderate prices.
See THE WESTERN CANALS AND THE JORDAAN
De Silveren Spiegel
Arguably the best Dutch restaurant in the city, great for fish.
See THE OLD CENTRE
Hoi Tin
Authentic Chinese restaurant in the heart of Amsterdam’s rather dodgy Chinatown.
See THE OLD CENTRE
Keyser
Fin-de-siècle restaurant and café next door to the Concertgebouw.
See THE MUSEUM QUARTER AND THE VONDELPARK
Art galleries
The Dutch do art galleries better than most, and Amsterdam’s house the prodigious output of the city’s seventeenth-century Golden Age – Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Vermeer – as well as the work of Van Gogh and the modern movement. They’re one of the highlights of the city, though sadly its greatest gallery – the Rijksmuseum – is closed for a long-term restoration.
Frans Hals Museum
It’s not far to Haarlem to see the paintings of Frans Hals in the almshouses where he lived out his days.
See DAY-TRIPS FROM AMSTERDAM
Van Gogh Museum
Not only the greatest collection of prints and paintings by Van Gogh, but also the nineteenth-century paintings and Japanese prints that influenced him.
See THE MUSEUM QUARTER AND THE VONDELPARK
Rijksmuseum
Only partly open for the moment, this is the place to see the best of the city’s collection of Rembrandts.
See THE MUSEUM QUARTER AND THE VONDELPARK
CoBrA Museum
Cool modern museum hosting the art of the international CoBrA movement – made up of artists from Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam.
See THE OUTER DISTRICTS
Coffeeshops
Art, architecture and canals aside, many visitors to Amsterdam come for just one thing: drugs. Amsterdam remains one of the few cities in the world where you can smoke a joint in public. The places that you can do this – Amsterdam’s euphemistically titled "coffeeshops" – are strictly controlled places that sell a wide variety of hash and grass in neat cellophane packets; they also sell spacecake (though aren’t supposed to) as well as an array of soft drinks. The purchase and consumption of up to 5g of cannabis, and possession of up to 30g (the legal limit) are tolerated rather than legal – though it’s unlikely that anything bad will happen to you if you step outside these limits.
Kadinsky
Chocolate chip cookies, good jazz and dope – what more could you want?
See THE WESTERN CANALS AND THE JORDAAN
Dampkring
Loud and friendly city-centre hangout.
See THE OLD CENTRE
Greenhouse
Way out of the centre, but known for the quality of its offerings.
See THE OUTER DISTRICTS
Rusland
Coffeshop is something of a misnomer for a place that’s as well known for its tea as its dope.
See THE OLD CENTRE
Siberië
Very relaxed and informal coffeeshop, slightly off the beaten tourist path.
See THE WESTERN CANALS AND THE JORDAAN
Hostellers’ Amsterdam
For those on a tight budget, Amsterdam’s array of places offering dormitory accommodation is second to none – from official HI establishments to unofficial private hostels and even Christian hostels. Most will provide clean linen for a few euros extra or you should bring your own sleeping bag. Many also lock their guests out during the day, and there is sometimes a nightly curfew, though these are often late enough as to make no difference.
Hans Brinker
Very well-established and well-run hostel.
See THE GRACHTENGORDEL
Stay Okay Vondelpark
The best of the city’s official hostels.
See THE MUSEUM QUARTER AND THE VONDELPARK
Flying Pig Palace
Well-maintained private hostel near the Vondelpark.
See THE MUSEUM QUARTER AND THE VONDELPARK
Meeting Point
Cosy central hostel.
See THE OLD CENTRE
Bulldog
Part of the coffeeshop chain, with everything from dorm beds to luxury apartments.
See THE OLD CENTRE
International Budget
Small budget hotel situated on a quiet canal in the city centre.
See THE GRACHTENGORDEL
Green Amsterdam
Perhaps because it is laced by canals, Amsterdam isn’t an especially green city, but it does have one great city-centre green space in the Vondelpark, and any number of other verdant attractions on its limits or just outside.
Keukenhof Gardens
The largest flower garden in the world – bar none.
Amsterdam Directions Page 1
